Trickle-down theory of economics a cruel myth in America

Back when my daughter, Emily, was in the eighth grade, we sold cookies door-to-door to raise funds for a school field trip. The economy was in a nosedive that year and money was tight. My first thought was to head for an upscale neighborhood where people had a little more discretionary income.

We sold not one cookie that day, and actually had a few doors slammed in our faces. The following morning we drove to a poorer section of town and the results were different. Folks were more than happy to support my daughter's cause. Some even bought several boxes of cookies.

I came away surprised, but not completely so. Evidently, rich people just aren't as nice as the rest of us. According to a recent study by the National Academy of Sciences, wealthy people are more likely to cheat, lie, engage in unethical behavior at work, stiff waitresses on tips, take candy from children, and even cut you off in the church parking lot.

Researchers discovered that the economic independence and self-important attitude of the wealthy make them more likely to act unethically. Evidently, their feelings of entitlement and lack of concern about the consequences of their actions also play a big part in their moral decisions.

This puts to rest an old notion that the poor and middle class are more likely to act unethically out of financial necessity.

Mitt Romney (remember him?) divided the country into two distinct groups: the workers who produce, and the moochers or lazy 47 percent. His strange philosophy was that if you give more money to the rich, it will spark the economy, and if you give less to those who have nothing, they'll simply work harder. Unfortunately, this "trickle-down" theory (a term attributed to humorist Will Rogers) has done little if anything to help those who are jobless, homeless, and hopeless.

The way the trickle-down theory actually works is that the wealthy get stingier. They keep everything they have, take more from the rest of us, and are seldom concerned about giving anything back. The majority of them are platinum spoon babies who have a huge distaste for the unwashed masses. Think I'm pulling your leg? Take a look at our present-day economy and that will tell you how nice the rich really are.

It costs about $4,000 a month to feed, house and clothe a family of four in America. If, as a society, we cannot ensure employment at a living wage to all Americans, shouldn't we be prepared to at least make up the difference so no one goes hungry? Of course we should. But the rich scream bloody murder at the mere mention of welfare or public assistance -- yet another blow to the idea that having money suggests some kind of innate virtue. They think government entitlements of any kind put the poor in bondage and kill any incentive to do something better for themselves.

The out-of-touch affluent don't known what it is to be poor. Most of them have never removed themselves from their comfortable and secure bubble. They are blind and tone deaf to the struggles of others. If I believed in hell, I'd bet that the rich will one day be begging their God to send Lazarus down from heaven with a iced bottle of Perrier to touch their tongues and cool them in the heat of the underworld.

Saying that those who are poor are content to be that way is, in my mind, an insult of the highest order. Most people I know want to work and are ashamed to take any kind of assistance. Being unemployed wears on you. Being employed and having your wages cut is equally demoralizing. This is the situation America is in, and it's growing worse. We no longer have a working definition of middle class in this country. We now have the poor, the working poor, and the barely surviving.

Selling cookies for my daughter's eighth grade field trip and having doors shut in our faces made me realize something important. I learned that it's not what you possess in this world, it's what you do with what you possess. On that second day, when a sweet old lady who looked like she didn't have two nickels to rub together bought a package of Emily's school cookies, I actually got a lump in my throat.

At that moment I was reminded of a quote from John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." As the Joad family desperately searched for work in California, Ma Joad said, "Rich fellas come up an' they die, an' their kids ain't no good an' they die out. But we keep a'comin'. We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out; they can't lick us. We'll go on forever, Pa, 'cause we're the people."